Mac. Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of

care,

The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast :

sleave of care,]

A skein of silk is called a sleave of silk, as I learned from Mr. Seward, the ingenious editor of Beaumont and Fletcher.

JOHN.

'Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.'' Balm of hurt miuds,' &c. The passage is corrupt. What is to be understood by a sleave of care? I think we may read, travail'd slave of care, i. e. one fatigued or worn out by Care. Knits up' is the same as our present expression locks up. The word knits has probably induced to the reading of sleeve. It must at the same time be observed, so that there may not be objection to the change I have made, that travail'd slave of care,' and balm of 'hurt minds' are not said in reference to a like description of persons. The travail'd slave of care' is the man, whose eagerness in the pursuit of fortune or of fame has involved him in troubles, and whose anxieties have consequently their spring, their origin entirely in himself: the hurt mind' is spoken of him who suffers from the injury he has received at the hands of others. In a word, the first is he who is seen in business or in arts to drudge," the second is the unfortunate being who has groaned under the " oppressor's wrongs."

The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, &c. In this encomium upon sleep, amongst the many appellations which are given it, significant of its beneficence and friendli ness to lie, we find one which conveys a different idea, and by no means agrees with the rest, which is ;

The death of each day's life,➖➖

I make no question but Shakspeare wrote:

The birth of each day's life,

The true characteristic of sleep, which repairs the decays of labor, and assists that returning vigor which supplies the next day's activity. The player-editors seem to have corrupted it for the sake of a silly jingle between life and death.

WARB.

I neither perceive the corruption, nor any necessity for alteration. The death of each day's life means the end of each day's

labor, the conclusion of all that bustle and fatigue that each day's life brings with it. STEEV.

"The death of each day's life." It is very possible that Mr. Steevens neither perceives the corruption of the text, nor the necessity that there is for correcting it. There is, however, an absolute necessity for alteration. Sleep is spoken of as being "chief nourisher in life's feast." How then can sleep be called the death of each day's life? There is here a contradiction in terms. As to the birth of life, proposed by Warburton, the expression is faulty. I would read "the breath of each day's life;" not as being altogether correct, (since breath and life may be considered as one and the same) but from "breath" being used in the sense of that which causes motion or life. It is still vulgarly observed of any one suddenly deceased; there is not a breath of life in him, instead of barely saying, there is no life in him. B.

Len. Strange sereams of death,
And prophesying, with accents terrible,
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New-hatch'd to the woeful time.

strange screams of death;

And prophecying, with accents terrible
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to the woeful time.

The obscure bird clamour'd the live-long night,
Some say, the earth was fev'rous, and did shake.]
These lines, I think, should be rather regulated thus:
prophecying with accents terrible,

"Of dire combustion and confus'd events.

"New-hatch'd to th' woful time, the obscure bird
"Clamour'd the live-long night. Some say the earth
"Was fev'rous and did shake.

A prophecy of an event new-hatch'd seems to be a prophecy of an event past. And a prophecy new hatch'd is a wry expression. The term new-hatch'd is properly applicable to a bird, and that birds of ill omen should be new-hatch'd to the woful time, that is, should appear in uncommon numbers, is very consistent with the rest of the prodigies here mentioned, and with the universal disorder into which nature is described as thrown by the perpetration of this horrid murder. JOHN.

I think Dr. Johnson's regulation of these lines is improper.

Prophecying is what is new-hatch'd, and in the metaphor holds the place of the egg. The events are the fruit of such hatching. STEEV.

New hatch'd to the woeful time." The occurrence of "bird" seems to have led Johnson into mistake. If the English" hatch'd," were really the poet's word, and as meaning incubated, his regulation of the lines would be right but I am fully of opinion that it is not; since with it, the explication will be forced whichever punctuation we may adopt. It would appear, from the context, that the French word huché, which signifies not only cut or minced, but mingled, is here employed. I therefore propose to read:

"New hach'd to the woeful time,"

i. e. New mingled to [suit with] the woeful time. This gives a much clearer sense than, the present reading, hatch'd or incubated, will in either way afford. B.

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had don't:

Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found Upon their pillows: they star'd, and were distracted;

No man's life was to be trusted with them.

"Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood, "So were their daggers, which, unwip'd, we found "Upon their pillows: they star'd and were distracted; "No man's life was to be trusted with them." Something, (a single line, perhaps,) is evidently wanting after "distracted." Judging from the expression: "No man's life could be trusted with them,"

and from the words of Macbeth :

"O, yet I do repent me of my fury;"

it would be in import as follows:

they star'd, and were distracted."

Our vakant Thane sheath'd in their breasts the weapons, "For no man's life was to be trusted with them." B.

Macb. Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature,
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there the murderers,
Steep'd in the colors of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore: Who could re-

frain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage, to make his love known?

-Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin luc'd with his golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature,
For ruin's wasteful entrance :-]

Mr. Pope has endeavoured to improve one of these lines by substituting goary blood for golden blood; but it may easily be admitted that he, who could on such an occasion talk of lacing the silver skin, would lace it with golden blood. amendment can be made to this line, of which every word is equally faulty, but by a general blot.

It is not improbable, that Shakspeare put these forced and unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth as a mark of artifice and dissimulation, to shew the difference between the studied language of hypocrisy, and the natural outcries of sudden passion. This whole speech, so considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it consists entirely of antithesis and metaphor. JoHN.

His silver skin laced with his golden blood ;]

The allusion is so ridiculous on such an occasion, that it discovers the declaimer not to be affected in the manner he would represent himself. The whole speech is an unnatural mixture of far-fetch'd and common-place thoughts, that shows him to be acting a part. WARB.

Unmannerly breech'd with gore;

An unmannerly dagger and a dagger breech'd, or as in some editions breach'd with gore, are expressions not easily to be understood. There are undoubtedly two faults in this passage, which I have endeavoured to take away by reading;

-daggers

Unmanly drench'd with gore:

I saw drench'd with the king's blood the fatal daggers, not only instruments of murder, but evidences of cowardice.

Each of these words might easily be confounded with that which I have substituted for it, by a hand not exact, a casual blot, or a negligent inspection. JOHN.

Unmannerly breech'd with gore:

ACT III.

This nonsensical account of the state in which the daggers were found must surely be read thus:

Unmanly reech'd with gore:]

Reech'd, soiled with a dark yellow, which is the color of any reechy substance, and must be so of steel stain'd with blood. He uses the word very often, as reechy hangings, recchy neck, &c. So, that the sense is, that they were unmanly stain'd with blood; and that circumstance added, because often such stains are most honorable. WARB.

Dr. Warburton has, perhaps, rightly put reech'd for breech'd.

JOHN.

"Here lay Duncan," &c. substitute lack'd or lace'd, (i. e. lackered,) Lac is the seedFor "laced," I would lac or red gum of India; and lacker is described in the books as "a varnish which spread on a white substance exhibits a gold color." This gives precisely the image wanted, and instead of the ridiculous one of a skin laced with blood, and which is justly objected against by Warburton, though he has offered nothing in the way of emendation. The word breach, with unmannerly before it, and thrown into a parenthetical exclamation, should be repeated immediately after "nature." The whole The whole may be regulated thus:

Here lay Duncan,

"His silver skin lace'd with his golden blood:
"And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature,
(Unmannerly breach!) for ruin's wasteful entrance.-
"There the murderers, steep'd in the colors of their
trade.

"Their daggers reech'd all with gore: Who could re-
frain, &c." B.

Mac. This I made good to you

In our last conference, past in probation with you;
How you were borne in hand.

-past in probation with you;
How you were borne in hand, &c.]

i. e. past in proving to you, how you were, &c. MAL.
"-past in probation with you." The sense is mis-
taken. Macbeth does not by "probation
it is expressed in "this I made good to you
mean proving:
tion with you (and in reference to times past.) signifies that
In proba-
which you have found by experience, that which you have